Benefits of Vasectomy

The benefits of vasectomy are many; peace of mind, less worry, freedom from fear of pregnancy, effective prevention of unplanned pregnancy, and permanent birth control. All of these benefits are available to men and even more are available to women with a 15 minute office procedure performed under local anesthesia and with minimal donwtown.

Vasectomy is a simple preventative measure that has benefits for the man, the woman, and the family.

Each section below expands to provide greater detail about benefits of vasectomy.

Vasectomy benefits for men

The primary benefit of vasectomy is highly reliable permanent birth control and prevention of unintended pregnancy.

This benefit can easily be obtained with a simple surgical procedure in less than 15 minutes within a doctor’s office under local anesthesia. Vasectomy puts men control of their reproduction and allows men not to be reliant upon their partners compliance with birth control.

The control of one’s reproduction, the decreased anxiety, and the lessened fear of pregnancy are valuable benefits of vasectomy. Some men may even experience increased sexual satisfaction as a result of decreased fears of fathering an unintentional pregnancy.

Vasectomy benefits for women

Although vasectomy is a procedure for men, women also benefit from vasectomy.

Vasectomy allows women to avoid the risks of pregnancy and childbirth, the risk of using hormonal birth control, and the risk of female sterilization (tubal ligation).

Stopping hormonal birth control

Vasectomy allows women to stop using hormonal birth control.

Hormonal birth control for women is extremely safe and can provide good reversible birth control, but hormonal birth control must be used daily and require periodic physician visits for evaluation and prescription refills. Hormonal medications have to be used regularly and without fail. Although use of hormonal birth control can provide women with many health benefits, the main risk of relying on hormonal birth control is failure.

The birth control pill has a failure rate of approximately 5%. In comparison, vasectomy has a failure rate of 0.3%. If 1000 women use birth control pills 50 will experience failure and become pregnant. In comparison, if 1000 men have vasectomy 3 men may have partners who experience pregnancy.

Avoiding tubal ligation

Vasectomy allows women to avoid having a tubal ligation or tubal occlusive procedure.

Female sterilization (also known as tubal ligation) is incredibly safe but these procedures are considered major procedures performed in a hospital often under general anesthesia, and inside the abdominal cavity. There are risks of general anesthesia and risks of injury to internal abdominal organs with female sterilization procedures.

Hysteroscopic trans-cervical sterilization (Essure) is a newer form of permanent birth control for women and the advantage of this newer form of birth control is that is can be performed safely in a doctors office. Unfortunately if women have complications from this form of birth control then additional major surgery will be required and often complications of this newer form of birth control requires a hysterectomy.

Both vasectomy and tubal ligation have similar rates of complication. The main difference is a vasectomy complication can often be managed safely within a doctor’s office but tubal ligation complications often require hospitalization and additional surgical intervention.

Main risk of female sterilization

The main risk of female sterilization is failure. Failure results in pregnancy. Pregnancy after female sterilization is at much higher risk of being an ectopic pregnancy (pregnancy in the fallopian tube). Ectopic pregnancy is serious and life threatening. Ectopic pregnancies can grow in the woman’s fallopian tube can cause the tube to rupture.

Vasectomy failure

Although vasectomy can fail, many vasectomy failures will never result in pregnancy because the amount of sperm released are too low to cause pregnancy. Even if a pregnancy occurs after vasectomy, the pregnancy is more likely to be a normal pregnancy in the uterus and not in the woman’s fallopian tube.

Vasectomy or tubal ligation: Which is best?

Although both vasectomy and tubal ligation are safe and effective, vasectomy is easier to perform, safer, the complications less serious, and can easily be performed within a doctor’s office. Why would you not choose vasectomy?

Experts Agree: Vasectomy is a better choice!

“Given that vasectomy and tubal ligation have equivalent contraceptive effectiveness and that vasectomy enjoys advantages compared to tubal sterilization of lower cost, less pain, greater safety and faster recovery, vasectomy should be considered for permanent contraception much more frequently than is the current practice in the United States and most nations of the world.”

– American Urological Association 2012 Vasectomy Position Statement

What Our Patients Are Saying

"Dr. Monteith prepared me mentally for the pre, during and post procedure journey. He also provided me with all the tools necessary for a comfortable recovery. I'm definitely confident in this Dr's work, and especially glad at how little pain I experienced throughout the process. It would be worth it to visit Dr. Monteith no matter what state you have to travel from, I drove from Virginia."

- J.R.

"Very comforting and knowledgeable experience not only was the staff pleasant so was the atmosphere! I drove 3 hours so i did my research. I was impressed with the information, visuals, and on hand knowledge about what the procedure was all about. I felt like an expert after i left! Not to mention the 45 min in and out time. I will be recommending this to all my colleagues thank you!"

- J.W.

"Dr Monteith, and his staff, were all very professional about my decision to have a vastectomy. They informed me of the risks, the surgery procedure, and the post-surgery care. The procedure itself was relatively painless. I would rate this as a 2/10. I highly recommend Dr Monteith; he even sent me a text message after the surgery to give me a personal update on my procedure. The procedure was quick."

- S.E.

"If you're in the market for a Vasectomy you need to give Dr. Monteith a serious look. Just compare the information on his website to the information you'll get from other options around the triangle. It's hard to get solid answers on cost, procedure and expectations up front from other offices but A Personal Choice plays no games and has great informative well designed website. Dr. Monteith makes it easy!"

- J.P.

"Excellent care. I visited Dr. Monteith for a single visit appointment on a Friday. Very clean, comfortable office. Pleasant staff. The procedure was quick and I went back to work for a little while. The only pain I experienced was soreness beginning about 4 hours post procedure, lasting for 24 hours, then subsiding rapidly. I was fine by Monday. The office checked on me twice, no problems. I would recommend Dr. Monteith to anyone.

- M.D.

Ask Us A Question!

Your questions about our services will be answered directly and promptly by our staff or Dr. Monteith. We will not respond to general medical questions or if you are a patient of another practice and are contacting us because you are not getting answers from your physician.

If you have been a patient at our center and have specific questions about your medical care you should contact the staff directly at (919) 977-5050.